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30 June 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Recent events in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe was sworn in Sunday for a sixth term after an election runoff that has been widely discredited.
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March 29: Zimbabweans vote peacefully in presidential, parliamentary and local council elections.
April 2: Opposition Movement for Democratic Change says its own tallies show its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won presidential elections outright with 50.3 percent of vote.
April 4: Ruling ZANU-PF party says there will be a runoff and endorses President Robert Mugabe as its candidate. Opposition goes to court to try to force release of all election results; court rejects demand.
May 2: Electoral Commission releases presidential results, saying Tsvangirai won most votes, but not enough to avoid runoff with Mugabe, the second-place finisher.
May 10: Tsvangirai, who left Zimbabwe after the election, announces in South Africa that he will participate in presidential runoff.
May 16: Electoral Commission sets runoff date as June 27, after moving the deadline to 90 days after official election results are released — beyond the legally required 21 days.
May 17: Tsvangirai postpones return to Zimbabwe after his party said he learned about a planned assassination attempt.
May 24: Tsvangirai returns to Zimbabwe.
May 27: Tsvangirai says politically motivated violence has killed 50 of his supporters since the election.
June 3: Government orders international aid groups to suspend operations, after accusing them of campaigning for the opposition.
June 4: Tsvangirai detained for nine hours north of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city.
June 5: A mob believed loyal to Mugabe assaults a convoy of U.S. and British diplomats, beating a local staffer. The government orders aid groups to halt operations indefinitely.
June 6: Tsvangirai detained briefly while campaigning near Bulawayo.
June 12: Zimbabwe's No. 2 opposition official, MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti, arrested at Harare airport upon returning from South Africa. Tsvangirai detained by police twice briefly while campaigning in the south.
June 19: Biti formally charged with treason, which can carry the death penalty.
June 20: Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights says it has recorded 85 deaths in political violence since the first round of voting.
June 22: Tsvangirai announces he is pulling out of the runoff, citing violence against his supporters.
June 27: Second round of voting is held. Tsvangirai's name remains on the ballot even though he withdrew from the race. Residents say they were forced to vote by threats of violence or arson from the Mugabe supporters.
June 29: Electoral officials say Mugabe won the runoff and he is sworn in for a sixth term. Results show more than 2 million votes for Mugabe, 233,000 for Tsvangirai, and 131,000 defaced or spoiled votes.-AFP.
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